by Maya Nicole
"So Lucifer knows now? Michael warned us not to tell him. At least not yet."
"There was an autopsy report for her. My dad buried her, or at least he thinks he did. I wonder..." I stopped speaking as the thought came to my mind. I must be more demon than angel, because no angel would consider digging up a grave.
Would they?
"If you're thinking about what I think you're thinking about… No," Tobias said firmly, reading my mind. Or maybe he read the look on my face.
"We'd know for sure. Well, at least that she really isn't dead. Lilith or not, I need to know. Wouldn't you want to know if it was your mother?" I opened my eyes and his brown eyes stared sparkling back at me.
He leaned forward and brushed his lips over mine. I pulled him closer and deepened the kiss, my mouth opening and allowing his tongue to explore. His lips moved to my jaw and slowly kissed their way to my ear.
"I think that, later, a spanking is in order," he said before sucking the skin right under my ear. My nipples hardened and rubbed against my T-shirt. He sure talked a big spanking game, but had yet to bend me over his lap. I wasn't opposed to the idea; the thought mostly made me giggly.
Tobias moved back to my lips and stood, placing a knee on the couch and then straddled me. I moaned into his mouth. The weight of his body on top of mine increased the wetness already forming between my legs.
There was something so intimate about him being on top of me like he was. No wonder guys liked to be straddled; it was fucking hot.
My hands slipped under his shirt and ran up and down his spine. He made a noise in his throat and moved his lips to my neck, suckling the skin just shy of leaving a hickey.
"We're gone for five minutes and he's already trying to get in her pants," I heard Asher mumble as the front door clicked shut. Olly chuckled in response.
Tobias continued to kiss my neck and moved a hand under my shirt, cupping a breast in his hand. He moved his thumb across the hard nipple and I shuddered with pleasure. I glanced over as Asher and Olly sat down as if we weren't dry humping in front of them.
It still blew my mind that they were content with sharing me. I wouldn't be able to share them with another woman, that was for sure. Did that make me a hypocrite?
"Olly and I have decided that John deserves to get his ass kicked. He'll do the ass kicking part since I can't risk being sent back to the high court. Are you two in or are you going to stay and suck each other's faces off?" Asher had an amused lilt to his voice. It was nice to hear considering he had left the room in a murderous rage not long ago.
I groaned as Tobias pulled his hand away and looked over at Asher. "Can't it wait?"
"Can it wait? I am vengeance," Asher said in a lower register. He stood back up from his place on the couch.
Tobias made a strangled noise in his throat and moved off of me. "Well, now I have to go since you think you're Batman and just ruined the mood. I sometimes feel like a babysitter to grown ass men." I really felt like he should have added "and a woman."
"Well, if you really feel that way, then I guess you can be my Alfred, Olly can be my Robin, and Danica can be my Catwoman."
"I don't know about that." I scrunched my nose.
Asher grabbed my hand and pulled me off the couch. He planted a wet kiss on my lips that I had to wipe off with my hand. I both loved and hated when he did that. "Alfred, why don't you make us some dinner? We need sustenance for all the ass kicking and fucking we're going to do tonight."
I lightly smacked Asher's chest and squirmed out of his arms. He had been very playful lately and the troubled look that was usually in his eyes had lessened. It was definitely still there though, like when he walked in and saw me beaten.
"There's no food in the house, unless you want hot pockets or a sandwich." I was slightly embarrassed by my food selection. It wasn’t like I'd had time to go to the grocery store. What I had was what Ava picked up.
"Then what have you been eating?" Tobias sounded concerned. If he didn't mellow out he was going to give himself a coronary or a head of gray hair.
"Hot pockets, cereal, sandwiches, and takeout. The usual."
Olly jumped up and faced Tobias. "Let's go out to eat then. Please, Dad, we never go out to eat!"
Tobias lunged for him and put him in a headlock. "Take it back or I'll spank your ass too." Tobias made a move to try to smack him on the ass and he twisted to avoid his hand, laughing hysterically.
Were they all on something? They were supposed to be mad at me for going rogue and getting my ass kicked, not acting like teenage boys. I half expected to get a lecture on the finer points of thinking and using common sense.
"So you guys aren't mad at me?" My question caused Tobias to finally let Olly go.
"There's no use in being mad. It's done and over with," Asher said, sitting on the arm of the couch. "Now go get changed so we can go eat."
Chapter Three
Asher
I knew the second my feelings escalated with Oliver. I had just damn near had a panic attack over Danica's bruised body. I loved the girl to pieces, would give my life for her again if necessary, but she was going to give me an ulcer.
Not that I could get an ulcer now.
The result of the exposé of her bruises was that I had badly wanted to punch or destroy something. My heart had been pounding at an uncomfortable level and my body was thrumming for a release, and not a sexual one. Shit would be so much simpler if that was the case.
My eyes had darted from the television, to the decorative bowl in the center of the coffee table, and then to the lamp on the end table. All prime stock for smashing to pieces.
Instead of destroying the living room, I had rushed out of the house and punched the shit out of the brick siding. I hadn't been able to stop myself. I’d needed to feel something other than the panic in my chest.
The impact had brought me back to reality, but in the process it also did a number on my hand. My skin was ripped to shreds, blood seeping out of my knuckles. It fucking hurt like it had gone through a meat grinder.
I was cradling my hand, trying to calm myself down, when I felt Oliver touch my shoulder to alert me to his presence. He was as silent as a ninja when he wanted to be.
His touch was gentle, just like all his touches were.
Fuck him and his gentle touches.
They did something to me, and not just ease my anxiety. Every time he touched me it was like he was touching my soul or some shit. My soul was already confused as it was. He just made it worse.
His touching had increasingly gotten more and more frequent and definitely not just at night when he was keeping away my anxiety. He'd touch me anytime he was near. His favorite move was brushing his arm against me as he passed or as he stood at my side.
And damn if I didn't start touching him too. I found myself moving closer to him when we were in the same room. Purposefully placing myself next to him on a couch or at a table.
I never really considered a relationship with a man before. Hell, I never considered being part of a polyamorous relationship either. Yet here we all were. There was a strange connection between us, where we felt drawn to each other.
Oliver was not my type at all. He was all doe-eyed and virginal, while I had the experience of at least ten men. I didn't know how to be gentle or take things slow. Hell, I would have slept with Danica on our first date if he and his idiot friend hadn’t interrupted us.
"Let me see your hand." The fucker didn't even wait for my response but took it anyway, making my pulse speed up. He was supposed to ease my anxiety, not increase it.
I had my self-healing ability back, but it didn't exactly work like it was supposed to. I could heal a hangnail and that was my limit. Healing took complete mental and physical awareness, which I was running low on. I might have gotten my wings back, but normalcy still eluded me.
But at least I could fly again.
His hands started glowing the color of a setting sun, and I watched as my skin knitted back togethe
r and the bruising faded away. It was a handy trick to be able to heal others. Archangels were born to do it; the rest of us could only heal ourselves unless we went through years of study. It involved a lot of inner peace and positive thoughts. No wonder I couldn't even heal myself.
He kept ahold of my hand and pulled me towards the water hose attached to the house. He turned on the spicket and grabbed the end of the hose, running the cold water over my hand to rinse the blood off.
I didn't speak as he held my hand in his palm and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, working the blood out of the creases. He was so focused, his blue eyes sparkling as he worked.
I felt like a fucking chick with hearts in my eyes when I was around him. When he and Tobias showed up on my rooftop earlier in the afternoon, I had seriously looked down at myself and regretted the ripped and dirty work clothes I was wearing. It was similar to how I had felt the first time I had Danica over to my house. The need to make a good impression was strong.
Punching a wall was probably not making a good impression, but he continued to come to me, to lock the demons back in their cages.
It was taking an awfully long time for him to clean my hand. I should have helped, but was content with him touching my hand in such an intimate way.
Where the fuck did this guy come from anyways? He had been a complete bastard to Danica and then did an abrupt one-eighty, seemingly overnight. If it had been anyone else I would have questioned their intentions, but Oliver was horribly naïve.
That was why I decided that it wasn't just Danica who needed protection, but him too. I would protect him from the world. However, I wasn't willing to protect him from the true threat. Me.
"I want to kick that guy’s ass," I finally said. I had been wracking my brain for what to say after my epic meltdown of bloody proportions. "Who beats the shit out of a woman like that?"
A beaten woman was what had caused me to fall in the first place. I had snapped at the sight of her in the hallway of an apartment building I was a security guard at. My mission was explicit: get her to a battered women's shelter, file a police report. Instead, when the man had come out of the apartment after her, I had beaten the shit out of him. That wouldn't have been a problem but then I threw him off the fifth-floor balcony.
I can't say I regretted my decision.
Olly made a non-committal noise in his throat, never taking his eyes off my hand. "You can't beat him up, it's too risky. I'll do it."
I snorted and pulled my hand away, drying it on my jeans. He wasn't a violent person. His words surprised me.
Olly rinsed his own hands off then turned off the water, hanging the hose back up.
"Do you even know how to fight?" I teased. He was much more of a lover than a fighter. He saved cockroaches for God's sake. Who saves those?
"I'm more into using a sword." He met my eyes and winked. What the hell was the wink for? Was he joking about his dick?
"Let me see your hand again just to make sure I healed it all the way," he said, reaching towards me again. I was pretty sure he knew he had, it was just another instance of him wanting to touch me.
I complied and he took my hand in his, gently probing the knuckles before turning my hand over and rubbing his thumb across the palm.
Fuck, that felt good. And fuck if I didn't want to kiss the motherfucker, but instead, I pulled my hand away.
"We should get back inside," I said, turning towards the door before he could touch me again.
After changing, we decided on a seafood restaurant on the water in Santa Barbara, since Oliver had never had seafood before. The four of us had never all gone out together, at least not to relax, and it was long overdue. With everything that had been happening, going on dates was pretty low on our priorities list.
Besides, we were long past what I would consider dating. We were right in the trenches of a committed relationship. All four of us.
We'd been through a lot. Danica and Oliver getting abducted. Oliver being forced to heal angels so they could be drained more frequently. Then there was the whole situation of my soul floating around like a jellyfish in a never-ending black abyss.
I thought being Fallen was bad, but being a lost soul was infinitely worse. There I was, for weeks, just floating in a dark void with only my thoughts as company. I thought my memories were bad now, but with no outlet like alcohol, violence, or sex, I had been a fucking mess.
Now that I had my angel wings back, things weren't much better. It's not like my memories could be erased because now they were so intertwined with who I was. Really, the only benefit was the wings; who wouldn't want to be able to fly? Traffic sucked a pair of hairy balls.
I slid into a chair next to a plexiglass wall, the sandy beach and ocean on the other side. The sun was just starting to go down and the waiters were lighting the outdoor heaters spread around the eating area.
Oliver slid into the seat next to me and placed the placemat and crayons he had grabbed at the hostess station in front of him. His old friends must have never taken him off campus much, judging by the way he was enthralled with every new experience. Coloring included.
We all watched as he emptied out the small box of four crayons and then looked up at us.
"You guys sure you don't want to color? I can go get you some. The hostess said adults can color too." He made me smile. Hell, he made us all smile.
I nudged his arm. "I'll pass, but make sure you bring that back with us and I'll hang it on my fridge, right beside your finger painting."
Oliver narrowed his eyes at me as the other two laughed. It was fun to tease him. I bet he would be fun to tease in the bedroom too. Not that I was thinking about it. Not at all.
"They sell adult coloring books. It's no different than me doodling," Danica said, shrugging. Oliver smiled at her and she winked.
"You and your doodles. You don't even need to put your name on your papers anymore, I just know which one belongs to you." Tobias opened his menu and took a drink of his water. "I want some oysters."
"Yuck. Aren't those raw?" I watched as Oliver started to shade in the pineapple in the picture. It was some kind of house for cartoon characters.
"Angel baby, can I order for you?" I asked, looking right at Oliver, who wasn't even looking at his menu yet. Knowing him, he had somehow already read the menu without even opening it. "You order the weirdest crap."
He'd probably order a plate of lemon wedges or some shit. He put the crayon down and cocked his head to the side with an incredulous look on his face.
"I do not. Food is food. Who cares what I eat?"
Last week when we ordered Chinese takeout, he had ordered brown rice. Who just eats brown rice? Brown rice tastes like cardboard.
The guy was as tall as the Jolly Green Giant and was built like an Adonis. He needed more than just rice, cantaloupe, and cookies. Sure he'd eat other things on occasion, but the list of Oliver approved foods was shorter than my dick. It was like he was scared of food, which was a shame. Seafood was going to really test his taste buds.
The restaurant did have a kids’ selection, but damn if I was going to let him order macaroni and cheese and a corn dog.
The waitress arrived and raised her eyebrows at Oliver, who had just picked his crayon back up after staring me down. I couldn't blame her for the inquisitive look she was giving him, but I wanted to ask her what she was staring at. I was allowed to judge and tease him; he had seen my ass naked.
Danica and Tobias placed their orders.
"And for you, sir?" She looked down at me and made a show of running her eyes down what she could see of me before they landed back on my face.
Danica cleared her throat and was glaring daggers at the waitress. I hadn't even paid attention to the waitress up until this point, but judging by the smirk on Tobias's face, she had done the same to him.
"We'll both have the seafood pasta." I handed her the menus.
"She just openly eye-fucked all three of you," Danica said as soon as the waitress was out of
earshot.
"You sound jealous," Tobias teased. "Women—or men—are allowed to check us out, aren't they?"
She made a strangled noise. "Not when they look like her."
I put my chin on my fist and stared across the table at her. Something was off about her tonight. I couldn't read people very well, but she seemed suddenly self-conscious. She was slightly hunched in her seat and had a frown across her face.
She was like that before the waitress even ogled us. It was unlike her and I didn't like it.
"She's got nothing on you. So what, she checked us out? You should see it as a compliment of your fine taste in men." I reached across the table and she took my hand. "What's going on with you?"
"Nothing," she answered quickly and squeezed my hand. "I guess I'm just PMSing."
I decided to drop it because I didn't want to touch that with a ten-foot pole. Tobias changed the subject and started rambling about the Dodgers.
When our appetizer arrived, Oliver's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he examined the grand seafood platter Tobias had ordered to share. It was a sight to behold with oysters, shrimp, lobster, and crab.
"It looks like snot." He held a raw oyster in a half shell in his hand and the cocktail fork in the other. "You want me to eat this? What if I vomit or die? It could have worms in it."
"Have you been looking at a lot of snot lately? Jesus. You aren't going to vomit or die. I doubt an oyster is going to take you out. Look, Dani isn't vomiting or dying." I showed him how to make sure the oyster was sliding around in the shell and then tipped it into my mouth. "See? Easy."
"Can I put ketchup on it?" He eyed the oyster with uncertainty. A few people at another table were looking at him with amusement. He wasn't exactly being quiet. I was struggling not to grab his jaw and force the damn thing down his throat like he was a dog in need of his medicine.
"That's cocktail sauce, genius. Kind of defeats the purpose of having an oyster. An oyster is supposed to taste like eating the ocean. Like poetry in your mouth." Tobias ate his own oyster and then grabbed a shrimp and dipped it in the cocktail sauce. "Just try it. Be a man. You should have your man card revoked for coloring anyway."